On a night when neither Miller nor Pettersson cracked the scoresheet, the Canucks needed a foursome of depth scorers to soldier their way past the Sharks and keep their tiny playoff chances from disappearing entirely. ✍: imacSportsnet
Four of Chiasson’s 10 goals this season have been in the last five games. He has played on four different lines during this productive stretch, and on Saturday got a chance to skate in the top-six due to the injury absences of Brock Boeser and Tanner Pearson. Chiasson finished with seven shots on target.
Chiasson collected the puck on a cross-ice pass from Bo Horvat, picked his spot as San Jose goalie Kaapo Kahkonen went pad-down at the near post, and got just enough on his shot to lift it post-and-in. “They’ve been obviously a huge part of our success,” Chiasson said. “But when you’ve got guys contributing on different nights, that’s how you win games this time of the year. Your best players are going to be your best players. But certain nights, if you can get a goal or two from some different guys, depth players, it obviously makes an impact.”
But Kahkonen made a handful of strong saves and when Vasily Podkolzin and Miller were assessed penalties 22 seconds apart, starting at 6:33, the Sharks tied it 1-1 during the two-man-advantage when Tomas Hertl tapped in the rebound from Timo Meier’s one-timer at 7:33.